Moment, Object, and Narrative: The 'Path' Pieces of Gyorgy Kurtag's 'Kafka-Fragmente', Op.24 for Soprano and Violin; and an original composition, 'Tableaus' for Percussion Quartet and Digital Playback

This essay explores "der Weg" or "the path" as a singular, yet significant thematic component that emerges from György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragmente, Op.24 for Soprano and Violin. I explore four pieces that uniquely represent this thematic (textual and musical) principle. The pieces are divided into categories based on the textual underpinnings of the work. I look at two pieces where "der Weg" is mentioned explicitly, namely Wie ein Weg im Herbst (Teil I,2) and Der wahre Weg (Teil II) and implicitly, Szene am Bahnhof (Teil I, 10) and Szene in der Elektrischen (Teil III,12).;I investigate these four pieces through perspectives of inquiry I call moment, object and narrative. These act as mini-lenses that reveal the dramatic interaction between music and text and provide a context for theoretical analysis that is loose enough to enable a wide and varied range of analytical conclusions while tight enough to keep a focus on the significant omnipresence of "der Weg.".;I use theoretical models that are linked to neo-Riemannian and neo-Schenkerian methods of analysis but not necessarily practiced as rigorous theoretical ends to my investigation. Rather, they are tools that are practically applied to Kurtág's compositional style that seems to teeter ironically, gracefully, and, at times, violently between the Modernist ascriptions of atonality and the post-Modernist allusions of quasi-tonality. Ultimately, this essay is less about grand claims that propose a new theory or principle upon which this multivalent music operates, but, it is more about how applying older models of theoretical analysis combined with a focused and abstracted lens of investigation (i.e. the moment, object and narrative) provide a peculiar reading of the music that, perhaps, reveals something about the compositional techniques and processes that went into the creation of this magnum opus.